Sunday, September 27, 2009

Swedish School and floor ball

This fall the Daughter is attending to Swedish School down in Sacramento. They meet once a week for 2,5 hours, learning and reinforcing Swedish. My Daughter is bilingual and Swedish is still her strongest language - but she needs to practice writing and interacting with other Swedish kids. She uses Swedish school material - the same as you would use in a Swedish classroom when you have "Svenska" (Swedish). She likes it a lot- but Mondays are tough days. Not only does she has 1st grade all day and then heading out to continue school for a couple of hours.

Luckily they have fun breaks - some of the other parents have "innebandy sticks" so they play "innebandy" (floor ball)on the breaks - a new favorite for my Daughter. It's something you don't see played often around here. I'm going to try to get a couple of sticks to have on our cul-de-sac to play. I might even join a game - it's fun to play "innebandy"!

It *is* a long day and I'm always impressed that all those families make that commitment to doing this. It's easier to put other things first, and I think it's empowering for children to recognize that they have a mini-community of people similar to them. I have noticed that people whose children maintained their home language in Sweden where people who didn't just isolate themselves but entrenched themselves with other families with the same background: eat the same foods, sing the same songs, know those books, take their shoes off when they come in, etc. It's all the same things that can make a child feel "different" and instead makes them feel special and lucky for those things.

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This is where I live. Home. California might be almost the same size (and shape) as Sweden, but 35 millions call California home just like me. It's called the "Golden State". 188 sunny days a year and no snow shovels in sight.

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This is where I grew up. 8506 km from California. Europe's fourth largest country in size, but tiny in population. Only 9 million of us. Meeting a Swede should probably be considered being unique! A part of my heart will always be here.